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A new partnership between virtual Android specialist BlueStacks and microchip maker AMD will see much of the Google Play store's stock of apps made available to Windows users running AMD hardware, the company announced Thursday.

Users wishing to run Android apps on their AMD-powered Windows PCs -- including those running Windows 8 -- will be able to use the free BlueStacks App Player program to do just that. AMD's AppZone store can also be used with BlueStacks' Cloud Connect system, letting users sync Android apps from their phones or tablets to an AMD device.

"By collaborating with BlueStacks, we are enabling software developers to more easily tap into the full capabilities of AMD's products, and providing millions of consumers with great experiences as they can now run Android apps on AMD-powered devices," Manju Hegde, corporate vice president of heterogeneous applications and developer solutions, said in a statement.

Android apps run through the AppZone will take advantage of AMD's graphics acceleration technology -- either in the form of a discrete graphics card or the company's integrated accelerated processing units.

AMD is also working to convince OEMs to ship products with the AppZone pre-loaded, offering baked-in Android functionality to its devices.

BlueStacks first rolled out the App Player in 2011, and ported the functionality to OS X this July, giving Mac users the unusual option of running Android software on an Apple product. The company's Cloud Connect sync application has been downloaded more than 100,000 times from the Play store, and the new integration with AMD could see that number increase substantially.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.